Neighborhoods with medical marijuana dispensaries do not have higher crime rates than other neighborhoods, according to researchers who examined 95 different areas of Sacramento, Calif., in 2009.
As more U.S. states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical reasons, some people have expressed concern that outlets that dispense the drug and their clients will become targets for crime.
But that's not the case, according to the study in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The researchers found no evidence that neighborhoods with a higher density of medical marijuana dispensaries had higher rates of violent crime or property crime than other neighborhoods. Read more »
A Colorado advocacy group is spending thousands of dollars to convince people that smoking pot is safer than drinking alcohol.
It's an attempt by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol to rally support for a vote in November that would legalize the drug for recreational use. Colorado legalized marijuana for medical use in 2000. Read more »
B.C.'s street-based prostitutes will still lead dangerous, fear-filled lives following an Ontario top court decision that OKs brothels.
The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Monday that indoor brothels should be allowed. But the five judges upheld laws against street "soliciting" or "communicoating."
What that means, sexworker advocates agree, is that the survival sextrade workers in Vancouver - those targeted by serial killer Robert Pickton and hundreds of other predators - will still be working in fear for their lives.
"We're very disappointed with the result on the communicating laws, and we hope that [the decision] will shift on appeal" to Canada's highest court, said Pivot Legal Society lawyer Katrina Pacey, an intervener in the Ontario case. Read more »
Street-based sex workers who are still forced by desperation to jump into cars with strangers will get no help from the Ontario top court ruling Monday.
Although the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Monday that not allowing safe indoor brothels is a violation of sex workers’ constitutional rights, the five judges still upheld laws against street “soliciting” or “communicating.”
What that means, sex worker advocates agreed, is that the survival sex trade workers in Vancouver — those targeted by serial killer Robert Pickton and hundreds of other predators — still will be working in fear for their lives.
The Ontario court ruled sex workers can still be prosecuted for “soliciting.” Read more »
My husband is dealing with dementia, and has been for the last 12 years. He is quite aware of where dementia takes a person.
I have his general practitioner's and specialists' approval to allow him to use medical marijuana.
I would not want to be facing what he faces every day. Would you?
I applied on his behalf through the federal government for a license to have a supply. I told them that B.C. Compassionate Club in Vancouver would be his supplier - but that is not a satisfactory source with the federal government. I must buy through them, grow my own or find someone with a license to grow for me.
I did not have a secure place to grow, nor the inclination to do so. How do I find someone to grow for me? Just put an ad in the local paper? It is not like growing tomatoes. There are rip-off artists, some armed, who would like some extra marijuana locally. Read more »
A new survey says a majority of Canadians believe prostitution should be completely decriminalized, with British Columbians voicing the strongest approval.
According to a survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion, 53 per cent of Canadians support making it legal to run a bawdy house and solicit, while 24 per cent of people believe prostitution should be made a criminal act.
In B.C., 57 per cent believed the government should not block the sale of sex, while only 18 per cent supported a complete ban.
"The idea of consensual prostitution is something that is definitely resonating and a lot of people think that is the way to go," said pollster Mario Canseco. Read more »
My son just started kindergarten. So naturally, I have been thinking a lot about the type of world and community in which I want him and our seven-year-old daughter to live. I am involved in a project to improve school lunches in our district to reinforce the nutrition lessons we teach in our home. I am a founding board member of a community group trying to improve our city’s parks. And I am working to help pass Proposition 19, the initiative to control and tax marijuana in California. It is important to me as a mother that my children grow up in a state—hopefully a country soon—that rejects the ineffective and damaging policy of marijuana prohibition. It may be counterintuitive, but legalizing marijuana will be better and safer for our children. Read more »
Ashley Smith’s prison suicide was not a singular event but one of many that could have been prevented if someone had cared even in the slightest, Canada’s prison watchdog told a news conference Wednesday.
Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers saved his harshest criticism of the Canadian prison system for his fourth and final assessment on Correctional Service of Canada’s progress in responding to reports and investigations into deaths in federal prisons, including Smith’s.
“Disturbingly, the same governance and accountability structures and gaps in mental health services that failed young Ashley Smith are still largely in place. Security concerns still largely tend to trump clinical interventions,” Sapers said. Read more »
According to the Association for Prevention and Harm Reduction Programs Australia (Anex), bans on prisoners possessing drugs and syringes have failed to stop their routine use behind the prison walls.
A harm reduction group says Australia's jails are a major source for new blood-borne infection, and it is calling for a controlled needle exchange for inmates.
The commonplace usage and sharing of dirty needles among drug-using inmates, promote the spread of disease within the prison population and eventually in the community of the infected inmates after release, the report says.
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Neighborhoods with medical marijuana dispensaries do not have higher crime rates than other neighborhoods, according to researchers who examined 95 different areas of Sacramento, Calif., in 2009.
A Colorado advocacy group is spending thousands of dollars to convince people that smoking pot is safer than drinking alcohol.
A new survey says a majority of Canadians believe prostitution should be completely decriminalized, with British Columbians voicing the strongest approval.
By. Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, AlterNet
By. Richard J. Brennan, Toronto Star
International Business Times 
